Hey guys.. so my puppy is just about a year old, time sure does fly. She is a very smart dog and I don't want to come across as one of those people just bragging.

To me, she seems smart enough to get into advanced stuff, and I'm curious what I can do to further her learning. She has obedience class scheduled for July 1st, shes already been through 2 months of puppy classes when she was younger. We held off on the obedience classes because she already knew most of the things they teach, but I'm taking her just to get used to being 100% reliable around other dogs. (We take her to the dog park 3-5 times a week and do commands there, i'd say she's very good with distractions already, we have puppy classes to thank for that).

I guess I should just start off with what she knows, and any advice would be much appreciated. We've looked into rally and might pay for a month of that after obedience classes are done.

ANY dog can do "advanced training", if their owner is dedicated to working with them on a daily basis. Consistent practice is much more important than classes! Dog sports are tons of fun, and will strengthen your bond with your pup sooo much. Plus, you will meet lots of good people and have lots of laughs in the process of training & trialing. She sounds like a smart cookie! What breed is she?

I highly recommend clicker training. It's amazing for teaching new behaviors, proofing with distractions, behavior modification and even just as an extra motivator! "Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs" by Karen Pryor is a really good starting point.

I've done Flyball, Agility, Herding, Rallyo and Obedience with my boys. Flyball isn't my fave anymore... it kind of teaches dogs to go crazy. I'm currently training and doing fun matches in Rallyo with my Corgi mix; he is an incredibly lazy dog, very independent and stubborn, and teaching him to be motivated and work to please me has been an awesome learning experience and he is so much more intuned to me and more outgoing because of it.

Working dog isn't out of the question really with most breeds. What are your interests as far as dog sports and what do you have experience with? Also are you thinking working as in real life jobs (this is different than dog sports) or an exhibition sport of some kind?

It's good that you're up to the point of obedience under distractions, just keep in mind you have another year minimum of forming before your dog is mentally mature.

I do obedience, and we are only competing at the lower levels at the moment, but if you want to be serious about obedience or are looking for something extra to do you can teach more advanced exercises like the dumbell retrieve or scent discrimination.

I taught both just for fun (I don't know that we will ever get to UD!) but my dog loved it and SD is a great party trick!

Really its the owner/trainer that limits the dog. Pretty much any dog should be able to do more advanced stuff. Of course some dogs are going to be easier to train than others. If you and your dog are having fun then for sure stick with it.

I think it's great that you want to do more with your dog. Pretty much every dog loves learning and bonding with their owner, and there's a ton of venues that will allow you to do just that, that go beyond the realm of basic obedience and tricks.

Others have given you good advice - depending if you have a specific breed or breed mix, there's herding, tracking, search and rescue (though this one requires a lot of commitment), bitework, carting... usually breed-specific. Then there's sports that aren't so much breed-specific, like agility, flyball, rally-O, dock diving, etc.

Your dog doesn't necessarily have to be a working dog. Dog sports and hobby trials like the ones I mentioned above are great ways to put a smart dog to "work".

Sadie is a Husky/Norwegian Elkhound/Bordie Collie cross we believe, I can even attach a picture of her!

What I meant by "working dog" was if there was any sort of public classes that taught stuff like scent discrimination, but I took a peek at the article smeagle linked, and I think that could keep me busy with her for the next couple weeks! She already knows "find it" and you can hear her sniffing trying to find the treats under the counch etc, so it shouldnt be too hard to start!

I dont know if this can be applied anywhere.. but I've noticed the Norwegian Elkhound seems to come out in her whenever she is around large animals. We live near a national park and whenever she see's the moose or deer she gets this different type of bark, its kind of neat! (kinda like this YouTube - Moose Hunting With Dogs )

I completely agree with you kat09tails, she still has a year of development left in her, and thats why I really want to push her to learn as much as she can while shes still a pup. She absolutely LOVES working with me, so I cant say no to that Im going to get her into Rally as thats the only sport we have here right now (In a smaller canadian city) So I will let you know how it goes!

Really you could do anything with her. If you're interested in the trailing part of her you could start her on blood trail. It's pretty easy and most dogs take to it fairly well. Running deer with dogs is illegal but tracking deer that have been taken by archery is a good skill to have.